Ed goes in like a force of nature, loud, defiant, unstoppable. He dives into problems headfirst, and makes his plan on the way down. Roy thinks that someday the fall is going to be too fast, too far, and someday Ed's not going to land on his feet. It hasn't happened yet, and it gets more and more unlikely every day he knows the Fullmetal Alchemist. Because if Ed has one thing going for him, it's the pure, maniacal determination that has kept him alive so far. The stubborn refusal to give up that lets him defy the military without a thought, go against every expectation without pause, and fight the Gate, the Truth, a God, and win. Even when he's down and beaten, almost dead, Edward is still winning. Roy thinks Ed's just too stubborn to die; that would be like losing, and he just doesn't lose. Losing is giving up completely. Ed will never do that.
Ed is fire, raging, consuming, devouring all he can as fast as he can. He attacks knowledge the same way he does enemies, going at it with everything he has, so fast. His thirst to know is unquenchable, and in the five years Roy's known him, Ed hasn't slowed down at all. Roy doesn't think Ed will ever slow down; even as an old man, Roy can see Edward as an ancient sword. Aged, but better for it. Still as sharp, fast, deadly, and with experience to make it all the more powerful. Ed is water and air, fast and flighty. He can't be captured or stopped, only slowed. His body and mind work in perfect tandem, so that he doesn't have to think to transmute, to fight. And Ed is earth, strong, steady. He is immovable. He'll never change
Ed is the perfect combination of everything. Roy wants to ask what makes you so special? and why do you get to come back? and what right do you have to bring back the dead, when the rest of us must follow the laws? He wants to scream when he sees Ed looking at Al like that, I can't, won't, haven't ever lived without you. He wants to strangle the Truth right out of the short alchemist, because Roy needs to know why Ed is so special that he gets to defy every law, bring down a god, all for the sake of his little brother. He curses the Fullmetal Alchemist, who doesn't seem to realize that other people have lost loved ones too, and they didn't get them back. He wants to shake Edward and look into his inhuman gold eyes and tell him he would have gotten over the loss eventually, just like the rest of them.
But then he doesn't, because he knows Ed's too damn stubborn to give up. On life, on Al, on anything.
Roy can look at Edward and see a child who has been through Hell and come out better and worse for it. Then he looks into those gold eyes and knows Ed would have turned out like this anyway, even if his mother hadn't died, his father hadn't left, his brother retained a body.
Ed's too damn stubborn to turn out any other way.
This is the first of what's probably going to be a trilogy. They can be read separate, though. The beginning's a bit choppy in my opinion, but I didn't really want to fix it. Might come back later. Next up: Al. What are the little brother's thoughts on his big brother?